UC Merced chief says future holds growth

Saturday

Oct 22, 2011 at 12:01 AM

STOCKTON - Imagine you could plan a great research university. Would you place it in the midst of the breadbasket of the world? Or a stone's throw from one of the natural wonders of the world? Or would you seek out a place occupied by people with roots from every corner of the planet yearning for a public institution of higher learning?

Joe Goldeen

STOCKTON - Imagine you could plan a great research university. Would you place it in the midst of the breadbasket of the world? Or a stone's throw from one of the natural wonders of the world? Or would you seek out a place occupied by people with roots from every corner of the planet yearning for a public institution of higher learning?

Since 2005, the University of California, Merced, has fit that bill on all three counts. And its newest leader, Chancellor Dorothy Leland, considers it both a privilege and a challenge to take over the reins at a time when UC's youngest campus has just surpassed 5,000 students while facing unprecedented fiscal hurdles.

Recognizing that UC Merced has been "very successful in attracting undergraduate students, our next phase needs to focus on supporting our graduate programs. ... It's through building up our graduate programs where we can stand out and build a national niche at UC Merced," Leland said Thursday during a visit to Stockton with The Record's editorial board.

Describing her first three months on the job as "a blur," Leland, 63, who was a leading contender for president of University of the Pacific in 2009, came to UC Merced following a seven-year stint as president of Georgia College & State University in Macon, Ga. Before that, she was vice president of the Boca Raton campus of Florida Atlantic University.

A native of Fillmore, a small farming community in Ventura County, this is not Leland's first foray into the San Joaquin Valley. She attended Pacific's Raymond College as an English major more than 40 years ago before transferring to Purdue University in Indiana after her freshman year. She eventually earned her doctorate in philosophy at Purdue and taught there as well as at California State University in Northridge and Chico, and UC Santa Cruz.

"We are three to four years behind on capital development of the campus. We need research facilities, academic classrooms. As my granddaughter would say, we are slammed for space," Leland said of the growing Merced campus that counts among its undergraduate students 250 from San Joaquin County.

It is also among the most diverse colleges in the nation. In 2010, more than 35 percent of the student body identified as Latino, 30 percent as Asian/Pacific Islander, 21 percent white and 7 percent African-American. And about a third of the overall student body comes from the Central Valley.

"UC Merced now serves the highest percentage of minority, first-generation and low-income students" among the 10 UC campuses, Leland said. "Most have not had the kinds of advantages that other students have had."

In light of the financial slashing other UC campuses have experienced as a result of the state's fiscal crisis, Leland said, "we have been spared those cuts and received additional funding that other sites have not received. They recognize that the San Joaquin Valley has been suffering more than any other region."

Furthermore, she said the university's Board of Regents recognizes the importance of the economic impact that a UC campus can have on its surrounding region.

In addition to taking advantage of its proximity to Yosemite, the Sierra Nevada and the vast agricultural resources of the Valley, Leland is particularly excited by the UC Merced San Joaquin Valley PRIME, or Program in Medical Education, the precursor to the college's own medical school.

Starting this semester, the program enrolled five students from the Valley who are taking classes at the UC Davis School of Medicine for the next two years. During their third and fourth years, they will be in clinical settings rotating throughout the Valley under the supervision of working, experienced physicians.

"We provide financial and academic support for these students, who during their course of study become familiar with the health care needs of Valley populations. They are all connected to the Valley and have a deep commitment to serving the needs of the Valley," Leland said.

During a ceremony to welcome Leland, UC President Mark Yudof called her a leader whose skill set is exactly what the campus needs as it moves into its next phase of growth.

"As remarkable as its first six years have been, its best days are yet to come. And that is good news for the Valley, for the state, and for that matter, the world," Yudof said.

Leland is determined that UC Merced's students and faculty researchers "make our mark as quickly as possible. That means identifying and selectively building areas where our research stands out and being on the cutting edge of its field."